New story in Health from Time: Coronavirus Containment Efforts in the U.S. Could Disrupt ‘People’s Day-to-Day Lives,’ CDC Warns

As the number of people infected with a novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 has ticked up worldwide—totaling more than 80,000 as of Tuesday afternoon—the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has routinely emphasized that the risk to Americans remains relatively low.

But that tone changed somewhat during a call with reporters Tuesday, when Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases warned that community spread appears imminent, and disruption to U.S. communities could be significant.

“It is not a question of if coronavirus will spread through the United States,” Messonnier said, “but a question of when and how many people will have severe illness.”

So far, person-to-person spread of COVID-19 has been minimal in the U.S. Most confirmed cases have been among Americans who traveled to areas where COVID-19 is more widespread, and these people have been treated and isolated accordingly. That’s crucial to the containment of disease, as spread within communities greatly increases the total number of cases and the likelihood that transmission will multiply.

Messonnier said the growing number of countries that have seen the virus pass from person to person in significant numbers is worrying, and something the U.S. should consider.

“I’m concerned about the situation. CDC is concerned about the situation,” Messonnier said, adding that now is the time for businesses, hospitals, schools and families to start preparing for a potential domestic outbreak.

On the call, Messonnier laid out steps communities and individuals may have to take if person-to-person spread picks up, including school and workplace closures; voluntary home quarantines; postponing or canceling mass gatherings; and implementing surface cleaning measures in schools, homes and public places. Depending on the extent to which these measures become necessary, schools and businesses may have to conduct classes and work over the phone or internet platforms, she said. Hospitals may have to ask patients to delay elective procedures and conduct other appointments using telemedicine.

While these steps have not yet been taken, even noting their possibility is a marked escalation from some of the CDC’s prior advice on coronavirus containment, which has mostly been limited to frequent hand-washing and covering coughs and sneezes.

“We recognize that implementing [measures] at this level will be disruptive to people’s day-to-day lives” if they become necessary, Messonnier said, noting possibilities such as lost income and the need for alternate childcare arrangements. “We want to prepare people for that possibility.”

Messonnier also raised another concern on the call, noting that there could be shortages of supplies like protective gear for health care workers in the event of a pandemic. Overseas, many Asian countries affected by COVID-19 have run short of supplies like face masks.

Despite the gravity of her advice, Messonnier emphasized that the CDC routinely plans for pandemic situations, in the hopes of over-preparing for a situation that turns out to be of no great risk. “I don’t think that preparedness will ever go to waste,” she told reporters.

New story in Health from Time: COVID-19 Has Been ‘Apocalyptic’ for Public Transit. Will Congress Offer More Help?

While trying to get to work over the past few months, Brittany Williams, a Seattle home care worker, has often been passed by two or three buses before one stops to let her board. Buses in her area that once carried anywhere from about 50 to 100 passengers have been limited to between 12 and 18 to prevent overcrowding in response to coronavirus, and Williams’ commute, typically a half-hour ride, now takes more than double that time. Other Seattle transit riders have described budgeting as much as an extra hour per trip to account for the reduced capacity, eating into their time at work, school or with family. Even with the ridership limits in place, Williams, 34, doesn’t feel safe on public transit. Some passengers don’t wear face coverings, and bus drivers sometimes ignore capacity limits, she says. On one ride with her seven-year-old son, she decided to get off at a stop far from her home after a driver allowed a crowd of people to board. “It’s very trying. I’ll put...

New story in Health from Time: An At-Home Coronavirus Test May Be On the Way in the U.S.

As cases of COVID-19 continue to climb in the U.S. , there’s a new urgency to make sure there are as many tests as possible to diagnose people who have symptoms that might indicate an infection. Knowing if people are positive is important for guiding their next steps: self-isolation, avoiding contact with others, and, if their symptoms get worse, seeking medical care. To date, access to tests has been spotty at best across the country, and while more kits are now available than even a week ago , most are gene-based assays that take several days for commercial labs to process and produce results. That may change in about two months if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives Emergency Use Authorization to the first blood-based COVID-19 test in the U.S. Scanwell Health, an at-home test company based in California, licensed the rights to a test developed by Chinese company Innovita, which was used extensively at the height of country’s epidemic earlier this year. “The ...

New story in Health from Time: A Montana Care Home Refused Free COVID-19 Tests. Now, Nearly Every Resident Has Coronavirus

(BILLINGS, Mont.) — It was meant to be a last line of defense to protect the most vulnerable as the coronavirus spread across the United States : Montana officials offered free testing in May for staff and residents at assisted living and long-term care facilities. But not all of them followed through, according to state data, including a facility in Billings, Montana’s largest city, that cares for people with dementia and other memory problems. The virus has infected almost every resident and killed eight, accounting for almost a quarter of Montana’s 34 confirmed deaths. Thirty-six employees also have tested positive at the facility where 59 people lived before the deaths began. Read more: ‘It’s Getting Worse.’ Nursing Home Workers Confront Risks in Facilities Devastated by Coronavirus While Montana’s rates of confirmed infections and deaths are much lower than other parts of the country, the outbreak at Canyon Creek Memory Care illustrates that even the most simple an...

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